Cataclysm

There are moments in life where things are drastically altered. Where you know you cannot look back. Where you know that things will forever be different in your view. Where something entirely too cataclysmic has decided your fate for you.

The word "cataclysm" is defined as 1) a flood; a deluge, 2) a catastrophe, 3) a momentous and violent event marked by overwhelming upheaval and demolition; broadly : an event that brings great changes (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cataclysm). It seems odd that a word with three predominantly negative denotations can be given a final and unusually possible-positive connotation. An event that brings great changes. "Great", of course, can be connotated as great impacting or great in terms of positive changes. At any rate, this portion of the definition stands out from the rest. It would be, if you have ever played the game, the one part that is not like the others.

So when we come upon a change in our life that is so cataclysmic, why is it that we are predisposed to thinking the change will be terrible in nature? Destructible, even? Is it because the Merriam-Websters of our lives have told us that it must be so? I am a firm believer that change, whether primarily good or bad, can be taken and molded how you wish to be fit. If you accidentally flushed your gerbil Petey down the toilet, think of the happy life he lived before that. Think of the fact that, now, you'll be able to get a new gerbil and show it copious amounts of love, as well (though, this time, keep him away from the toilet). I'm not saying the grass is always greener on the other side, but sometimes, there aren't as many weeds as you might think.